Well here we are, Christmas 2008!!!! My, my how Chloe has changed.

Here is the line up from the left, Jason, Robin and Jason, Noelle-Liz and Chloe, Micah & Ron, Steve and Regina

Hope you all like the pic. We had a great time and decided next year, we just may do a more simpler dinner instead of the traditional, but then we would have no left overs!!!

Christmas is Almost Here and another Sibling Discovery

Well, the weather is definitely a changing. We are finally getting some cold and I mean cold weather. Snow has also been falling down at our level. Now, I can't wait to go skiing!!!!

Christmas is less than a week away and I am knitting feverishly to get some of my gifts done in time. A couple of people might get their gift with the stitch holders attached as I might not be quite done with their gift. Should be, but you just never know.

Well, I did do some more family researching on my Mom's side. Located my half-sister who now lives in Albquerue, NM. It was so neat talking with her the other evening. Was able to find information on my brother and have sent a card to his family as it seems he passed away a couple of years ago.

We are home for a couple of months as we will not be taking any more trips until the spring.

Everyone, have a Merry Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving

As we come to this holiday it is always a good time to remember and enjoy family.

Put away all of the stressful stuff that will come with the next upcoming holiday. I really dislike all of the decorations for Christmas being in the stores now in October and Halloween hasn't even come and left.

Thanksgiving is becoming more of my favorite holiday as it really seems to be the time that everyone concentrates on being with family and/or friends. There is no big pressure on having to give a gift, it is just the time of enjoying your time spent with loved ones and remembing how lucky we all are. This is how it should be, you celebrate time spent with your loved ones!!!

So enjoy the holiday and eat well!!!!

Take pictures and just enjoy the time spent with family and/or friends.

And if you are one of those individuals who goes out on Black Friday, have fun, as you won't see me out there at the mall. Not what I consider a fun day!!!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Family Secrets and Discoveries

For those of you that have known me for quite few years, know that I have been thinking about doing research on my Dad. Attempted a couple of times over the years, but never really took it to the next step. Maybe one of the reasons I decided to do this now is with the birth of my grand-daughter Chloe. My sons's Dad comes from a very large family and my side has always been small, my Mom, younger brother Ed and myself. Along with being retired, I have the time to do the research and having access to the internet you are able to utilize many resources.

Felt I was ready on an emotional level for what I would find out. Yes, I have been doing the could of, should of and would of and Ron had been telling me for years to do this but realized you don't start this until you are ready to deal with whatever you discover.

So I began my research in earnest about 3 months ago and have discovered family. First I located 2 half-sisters (Carolyn and Mary Jo). Then while doing this research saw that someone was looking for information on Dad. As I was not sure if this person would be checking the web site again, decided to see if I could figure out her email id. Tried different email endings and bingo got the right one. It turned out to be my half-brother Tom's daughter Katie. My small family universe has grown.

At the time we left for vacation, my new found family grew too:
2 half-sisters, 1 half-brother

The sisters and brother are:
Carolyn who lives in WA with her husband Mike. They have 2 sons
Mary Jo who lives in Houston, Tx with her husband David. They have 1 son
Tom who lives in Northern AZ with his wife Vicki. They have 2 daughters and 2 sons

Additionally, located a cousin who lives in Indiana. Her name is Barbara Ann and we have talked as well. She is quite a character. Barabara Ann has been working on doing family research and provided quite a bit of family information over to me. Found out that Dad was 1 of 8 children. She is working on getting some family pictures and other stuff put together so we can add this information to the family tree we are working on to build/update on the web.

On the trip up from Portland to Anacortes, I actually met and visited with Carolyn. Her and Mike live about 35 miles North of Portland. We had a real nice visit and talk. At the time of meeting Carolyn, I was only aware of the half-sisters and half-brother.

When we went up and stayed Anacortes, WA, we made a trip down to Oak Harbor as this was the last address that we had for Dad. Discovered through the death notice, that my Dad had remarried after my Mom and he had a couple of step-sons (Larry, Bruce and Harry). Having their names, I started doing some research on the web and found Larry. Harry passed away about 3 years ago. When I contacted Larry and his wife Marcia, they were surprised to hear from me. They wanted to know if we were passing by their way as they live in Vancouver, WA. As we would be heading down to Portland to visit with Jim, told them that I would try to give them a call when we got into Portland. We were able to get together and had a great visit. Each of us shared stories and pictures.

Yes, this has been emotional and I have experienced all kinds of stuff. But I am so thankful to have finally learned what happened with Dad and gaining additional family is great and what a wonderful gift to discover. A lot of questions that I had were answered by Larry along with the sharing of some funny stories from him as well. After I got home, I made a call to Bruce (the other step-brother). We caught up with each other Monday evening and had a long chat.

As to the other siblings, we are going to meet right after Thanksgiving. Tom and his wife are coming out here as one of his daughter's lives right down the road from us in Roseville. Talk about the six degrees of separation, him and his wife were actually looking at homes in the Auburn area before settling on moving to AZ from Southern CA. Mary Jo and her husband David are coming out as well. Getting really excited about all of this. Ron is trying to keep track of all the new found brother/sister in-laws that he has now acquired.

How Dad came to be in all of our lives is quite a story but that is for some other time and does it really all matter? For me, no it does not. For me, knowing some more history just closes those open issues that I have dealt with over the years. If out of this, we all decide we wish to develop a relationship and keep in touch then this is a positive. It has been pretty amazing to me how we all seem to be able to talk with a relative of easiness and also find we have some common interests. We have shared pictures and it is kind of weird to be looking at someone else who has some similar features and expressions.

Maybe there is a reason why all of us waited this long to start our research. Who knows how any of us would of handled this discovery when we were in our 20's, 30's, etc. Being a little older and dealing with life experiences probably has mellowed us out so we are not so judgemental. You know, getting rid of the baggage!!!

So I guess you can say, that life is not dull around here. Sharing a couple of pictues with you as well. One is of Carolyn and I. The other is of Larry and myself, then one of Larry, his wife Marcia, Ron, Jim and myself.

No, you won't find us appearing on "The Today Show", "Jerry Springer" and/or "Dr. Phil".

So what is next you ask, who knows. Going to be working on my Mom's family. After this research, who knows what I will discover.

The Long Way Home

All, we started out for home last Monday morning after having a wonderful weekend in Portland with family.

Once we got down towards the mid part of Oregon, we found out it was snowing over the Siskiyou Summit. As we do not have chains for the RV and do not wish to be driving in the snow we decided to spend the night at Seven Feather's Indian RV/Casino resort.

Our luck with weather defintely went away. We ended up doing a long way trip to get home. Had to drive over to the coast and head down that way to stay with the lower altitudes. Plus, we were about 2 days late getting home.

All in all, we had a great vacation with Dennis and Cathy. It was also a great trip of new discoveries................

So until the spring we are going to be winterizing the RV and getting ready for the holidays and exciting things.

Knitting Shops In Portland

Well it is always interesting when you are working on a project and you realize that in order to continue you need to buy more yarn. Even though you might think you have enough it sometimes happens you run out. So you ask, just buy some more. This is okay if you are working on a scarf or maybe even a purse but you always have to worry about color shades and all. So, I just decided to get more yarn.

When you are out of town you don't know where to go. Fortunately for me, I discovered 2 nice little shops. 1 was "All About Yarn". This is a nice little yarn shop located in Tigard, OR. Went over there and they were having a drop in knitting session. For you non-knitters, this is where you can just join a group of other knitters/crocheter's and do a knit/chat along. While everyone believes I can just walk into a room and begin socializing this is not case with me. So what I did was stroll around the shop looking for the yarn I needed and listened in on the conversation of the ladies knitting. One of the salesperson asked if I needed help and she tried to help me find the yarn I was looking for. This always helps when you have a personable salesperson. Then I joined the group and had a nice visit with these ladies I had never met before. Knitted with them for a couple of hours. As I could not find the yarn I needed, they recommended another yarn shop that might possibly have the yarn I was looking for.

The 2nd shop is called "Abundant Yarn". This shop is a little bigger than the other one and they do lots of fun things for their customers. They have a coffee/deli shop, offer foot spas and has a beer/wine area. Now understand, having a glass of wine while knitting poses it own challenges. The 2 don't mix for me especially during the day. This does not mean that I haven't had a glass of wine while knitting, I just know the end results. And if I was to get the foot spa, not sure I would be worth anything afterwards. Anyway, this is another great shop. Their selection of yarn if unbelieveable and they have a very helpful sales team. The shop has a lot of different people activity going on and everyone seems to be regular customers. As I mentioned earlier, I knitted with a lady (Susan), whom I had struck up a conversation with and had a nice couple of hours knitting.

I would reccomend either one of these 2 shops if you are up in the Portland area.

Portland

Ron and I arrived late on Friday and have been visiting with Jim. As we defintely hit many places with him on our last trip, we decided to make this a more relaxed visit.

On Saturday, the 3 of us got together and headed downtown to take in a couple of museums. As I have been working on a knitting project, Jim heard me mention about having a need to get some more yarn. I had checked out a knitting shop on Friday, but they did not have want I needed. So he drove me over to this shop not far from where he lives and I was in 7th heaven. Jim and his Dad decided to do some father/son bonding and I chose to stay and knit for a couple of hours. Found the yarn that I needed and met this really nice lady Susan. Her and I knitted on our projects and chatted for about 2 hours. Big hugs and kisses to Jim!!!!

After the boys picked me up, we decided to head downtown and take in a couple of museums. As we were a little hungry, Jim took us to this pub for some hamburgers and stuff. We ended up getting a nice seat by the window where we could look over the Marina and people watch. We ended up staying there for about 4 hours, just visiting and talking.

While walking back to car from the Pub, we came upon this lady who was feeding the geese. It was interesting watching her as I felt this is something she did on a regular basis. It was begining to rain pretty good and she just got out her umbrella and continue on with feeding the birds.

We then headed over to Powell's and spent a couple of hours roaming through the aisles to see what we wanted. I love roaming around this place. When I used to travel to Portland for work, I would always check out Powells.

We had a great time on Saturday and a great visit with Jim.

San Juan Islands

Just about have you all up to date as to our travels in upper WA. After checking out some of the towns around Anacortes, we set out for San Juan Island. As we had a vehicle with us we took that over with us on the ferry. We lucked out with the weather, a little fog in the morning but defintely a little cooler.

San Juan Island is one of the bigger island and we defintely took in the entire island. We visited a really nice little marina called Rausch port. Defintely some money over in this area as there were some really big boats docked there.

Went over to where the British and American's fought over a Pig.

Yes, we defintely did all of the tourist stuff but we had a good time. At the end of the day while we had some spare time, we found a little wine shop while we were waiting for the ferry to come in so we could head back to Anacortes. This time we hit a good winery (compared to the one in Astoria) and bought a couple of bottles.

Sharing a couple of pictures.

We then headed down to Bothell, WA and had dinner with a good friend of mine and her husband. Had a great Italian dinner and greata visit with Bonnie and Carl. Bonnie and Carl are in the middle of finishing a remodel in their home. They have done a great job. They are in the last stages of the remodel as they now have a deadline to be done by Christmas as the family is coming to their place. Defintely agree that building a new home is easier on everyone than a remodel while you are living in the home.

Before we took off we toured a Stained Glass Company in Woodinville. It was a great little tour and we Dennis and I learned some new techniques on Stained Glass projects.

Dennis and Cathy began their trek home to New Mexico going back through Yakima and Lewiston, before going down through Moab. We had a great time with them and are already discussin our next trip in the spring. Think we will do the desert the next time.

Ron and I headed back down towards Portland so we could visit with Jim and do some things with him for a couple of days.

Anacortes, WA

After leaving Astoria, OR, we then headed up to Anacortes, WA. Did do some other visiting, but I will save that for later. We did check out a couple of outlet malls and bought a couple of things.

We decided to make Anacortes our base for a couple of days as we explored around the area.

As we had did our fair share of Fish and Chips and various renditions of Clam Chowder we were quite ready for either Hamburgers or Pizza. The manager at the campground we stayed at, recommended a pizza place in Anacortes so we tried that. Good reccomendation. If you are ever in Anacortes make sure you check out Village Pizza, it was so good!!!

We drove around Anacortes and went up to a bluff to catch a nice view of the Marina and the surounding area.

Astoria, Oregon

Made it up to Astoria, OR. Visited Ft. Clatsop which is where Lewis and Clark settled. That was really interesting. Afterwards, Dennis and Ron went and toured through the Maritime Museum while Cathy and I visited the Flaval House and Heritage Museum. Since we had been up here in June, wasn't ready to revisit the Maritime museum. We enjoyed them all. After finishing our tours, Cathy and I found a winery located in Astoria. Interesting little winery. This winery is pretty much a one person operation. We met up with the boys and headed down to check out the Eagle Viewing spot, however, they were not out and about so that turned out to be a bust.

The next day we headed over to Ft. Stevens. This post was established during the Civil War and has a huge armnament as they were protecting the coastal area around the Columbia River and Astoria. Cathy and I did some walking around some of the paths and realized after walking through one path that we were trouncing around a Bear/Cougar area. So now we know what those droppings were. The scary thing is the signs were nowhere around the area we entered but rather when we got to the end trail. Not sure what was up with that? But now we know what those droppings were that we were trying to figure out.

It has also been amazing to see the different colors of fall that we have seen up here in Pacific Northwest.

Having a good time and have lots to tell everyone when we get back.

Cannon Beach, Or

Made it up the coast from Newport up to Cannon Beach. Working to get the blog up to date on our travels. We took a pretty easy day traveling up to Cannon Beach. After we got to the RV resort we decided to take a walk on the beach and see if we could catch the sunset and get some pictures.

After a good walk, we walked into town and found a tavern and had dinner along with a couple of beers. We also lucked out and got to listen a bluegrass combo play that night. They were really good and a lot of the locals came in to listen and enjoy the evening.

Good time was enjoyed by all.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Newport, Oregon

 
 
 
 

Trying to get our travels updated. After Jim left us in Florence, we headed up the coast and made it above Newport, OR. Enoyed this city and did a little site seeing around the area. We made it up to the lighthouses. The day we went up as I got ready to take my pictures, realized my camera was kaput!!! No charged battery. So the next day, Ron and I headed out to get some pictures.

Hope you enjoy.

Crabbing in Florence, OR

 
 
 
 

Well, Jim drove down from Portland and met us in Florence, OR. We really lucked out with the weather and had a great time crabbing. As, I took one look at the boat, decided to let Dennis be the first tryout. Even though I may be a good swimmer have a really good respect for the Ocean.

Dennis and Jim made it back and their haul was about 3 crabs. On Sunday, I went out with Jim. Don't know if it was because we went out in the morning or just my lucky day, but we got 12 crabs that morning!! And yes, I was giving the boys a hard time. Jim made me work for those crabs. Dennis had the camera that day, so I need to get the picture he took of me as it sure was not hard to miss me that day. Imagine my outift was neon Green...

Jim was realy good letting me get used to the zodiac and how it worked. After about 20 minutes, I was doing good and we were flying around the bay in the Zodiac, picking up our crab pots and resetting them in different places.

Dennis went out in the afternoon and they got about 6, so we ended up with about 22 in all. Cooked them all up that evening and then divided them all up the next day.

As to our clamming attempt, not as good as when we were up there in June. Maybe it had something to do with the tide tables. We were more in a plus mode vs in June when we were had more "minus" footage.

We had a great weekend and really enoyed ourselves.

Listening to the Radio

Well, we met up with Cathy and Dennis in Eureka. As we headed up the road to Winchester Bay, OR we were flipping through the radio stations. You defintely know you are out of the big city areas as it seems you get some darn good music on the radio stations. Now as a child from the 60's living in SF, FM was considered in those day's (I can't believe I am saying this), underground stations. You listened to full albums or the entire track of a song and the music was not you heard on regular radio. Nowaday's all you get on FM stations is what I call "Top 40"!!!

Anyhow, as we were driving up the coast, we were enjoying the music and then we realized the stations we were listening too was being provided from the colleges located up and down the coast. Good mix of music and also some we had not heard before.

One station in Oregon was doing a Elvis Presley and Beatles day. Not really a Elvis or Beatles fan but the music was good. Found myself singing along pretty good with the Beatles song. What was really great was hearing their songs that you don't normally hear on Radio.

On the Road Again

Yes, we are doing another RV trip back up to Oregon. We are meeting Dennis and Cathy in Northern CA and then we are going to head up the coast of Oregon.

As we headed out last week, we went I-5 and then took Hwy 20 to get us over to Eureka. Going Westbound on 20 sure brought back many memories as we got to Clear Lake.

Clear Lake was always the place we went to in the summertime. The area has not changed that much in oh so many years. As we drove through the upper part of Clear Lake, I began thinking of my Mom. She was a character. I can still see her pulling the car over and going over into the orchards and pulling fruit off of some farmer's tree. We were so lucky some farmer did not come after us with a shotgun. Lots of good memories of summers spent up at Clear Lake.

Now, we actually drove a lot longer and further than we planned. We got into Willits late that night and could not find a RV place around 12:30 a.m. So we decided to dry camp in the Safeway parking lot. Yes, we did that. The good news, they open early and I was able to get a latte to start the day off. Willits is a small town and defintely has not changed either in 25+ years.

We made it out of Willits the next day and met the Menta's in Eureka. Great weather going up the coast of California. You know us Californian's keep forgetting how diverse our state is. Sierra's, desert, the valley and the coast!!!

Getting Ready for Travels--Old Habits Die Hard

Well we are once again getting ready to leave, but why is it that I do all this stuff before I leave? These are defintely things I do because it was always what my Mom did. And these are the stuff that I said I would never do when I grew up, but I do. You wonder what these are:

Always put on clean sheets
Clean the house top to bottom
Make sure there is no dirty laundry
All the dishes are cleaned

You want to know why, because my Mom said if something happened to me while I was gone at least people would know that I kept a clean house and the bedsheet were clean, haha!!!!! But I still do this after all of these years.

Maybe one of these days, I just won't do this. You want to know why? Because when we get back from our travels, the house is dusty, we may bring back dirty laundry and who really cares about the dishes, they are in the diswasher!!!

Well see what happens, but until then, I do all of this stuff.

Fall is in the Air & Thoughts of San Francisco

Yes, Fall is in the air around here in Northern CA. We are getting cooler nights and our temp's during the day are not as warm. As we have Oaks and Pines we see the color change on the trees and the falling of pine needles. Oh, those pine needles, you can sweep the back deck of leaves and pine needles then 2 days later it looks like you never did anything.

This last weekend as I was sweeping the deck again, my mind started wandering back as to how this city girl ended up in living in the country. As I thought back to my growing up years in San Francisco, yes, I am one of those individuals who was raised in SF (aka the city). Remembering living in the Noe Valley area of the City, my idea of what was green and trees was either Dolores Street (with it's strip of grass and Palm Trees) that ran from Mission Street North/South to Market street or Golden Gate Park which is a wonderful area. We had no grass in our front yards or flowers because everyone had cement. Cement walk-ways and sidewalks was the norm. If people had flowers and/or trees, they were more likely in their back yards if you were lucky enough to have the area to do this.

Living in the city during the fall months meant we had warmer weather and the fog would only hang around in the mornings. Now, you must understand, our idea of warmer weather meant it was above 60 degrees. A hot day to us living in the city was 75 degrees!!!!

I had very little exposure to trees changing color, as Palm Trees and the other Trees around the City were always green. You must remember this was before we had all these magazines and tv shows that talked about the different colors of fall. And driving out of the city was mostly done during the summer months up to Clear Lake and the Russian River area. Additionally, driving out of the City meant we were going to the country and just going over the Bay Bridge to the East Bay was an adventure as we were the big city kids (haha). Funny how you think that way when you are a kid and/or teenager.

Now, don't think us city kids had it boring, because we didn't. One of my knitting buddies (who also grew up in the City) her and I were laughing the other day about the fun things we used to do growing up there. Her and I both remember sliding down and around people's inside stairway bansisters. The more stairs and levels meant more turns in the banisters and a longer ride. We both agreed, the best banisters to slide on were the ones with all of the turns. You had to be careful if you got to much speed going as you had to remember and pay attention as to when your ride was getting to the end.

Yes, I love living up in the country where you have space, you can grow a garden and have privacy, but sweeping off the back deck and very long driveway every 2 days is not fun during the fall months. Now, before you go feeling sorry for me and picturing me out there with a broom, hubby did buy me a power blower which makes it a lot easier job getting rid of the leaves and pine needles.

So, I'll continue to enjoy living out in the country, dealing with the fall issues and enjoy my fond memories of growing up in the City.

2nd Batch of Halloween Decorations

Here are a couple of more. You can click on the photos to see more of the detail. It takes me about 2 1/2 days to do all of this setting up and about a day to take all down. And yes, I have the Turkey stuff out for Thanksgiving, Santa's for Christmas and I also do Valentine's Day.

Halloween Decorations

Well it is that time of the year when I start decorating the inside of the house, yes, Halloween kicks it off big time. So enjoy the pictures. We have been able to consolidate the villages down to 2 big locations instead of 4 around the house.

The big bummer is that we don't get the trick or treaters out here in the country, rather the kids from our area go into town. I don't blame them, most us have 2 to 5 acres so that makes for less places to get their treats.

Well I spent a good hour and half trying to find out to post my web album on to my blog as I get a little brain dead in between from the last time I did an upload of my photo albums. Looks like Picasa has changed this and you can only post your album as a slide show, I have done this before but the slide is so small you cannot see the detail in the pictures as these. So bare with me as I post multiple post to share the pictures. I'll have to possibly find another photo software so I can share the pictures as an album vs a slide show.

Enjoy......

Enjoying the Day

Well, Ron and I have defintely been enjoying kayaking around the area. The last couple of weekends we have been meeting up with Bev and Jim up at Sugar Pine Res. They are paddlers and we are peddlars. The difference you ask? Well as a paddler, they use an oar and we peddle through the water. Hobie kayaks have this mirage drive and there are peddles that you operate. It is defintely a matter of preference and I am sure the die hard kayakers (paddlers) think we are odd, but hey, to each their own.

Each method gets a different kind of workout. The paddlers get the exercise in the upper body and the peddlars get the workout in the legs and abdomen.


So enjoy.

The Knaughty Knitters

After many years of wanting to learn how to knit, I finally took a class about 2 years ago. I am hooked, it is so much fun and has been a great way for me to make new friends. One of the classes that I attend (yes I take 2 different classes), there is a small group of us known affectionally as the "Knaughty Knitter's".

In the spring our instructor challenged us to knit these old fashioned type of bra's. The group took it 1 step further and decided that we would do a theme based decorated bra and about 17 of us chose which month we wanted.

Our instructor then mentioned to us about the "Auburn Art Walk" and we all decided to enter our knitted bra's as a group display. We affectionally named our group entry "Supporting the Art's". Each of the monthly bra's have a theme and the knitters involved all put their own artistic touch to the bra's. We even made the front page of the local paper the Auburn Journal, understand it is a local paper (haha). Our display was a big hit and many comments were received, some positive and some not. We took all of this in stride as we were glad for the many smiles we did put on people's faces as that was our main intent.

Well, the group then decided to enter our entry into the California State Fair. Our submission was accepted, except we had to reduce the number from 17 down to 12, as they only wanted 1 bra for each month. Our project garnered an Award of Merit" and we got a check for $60. It has been funny to get phone calls from friends who saw our exhibit.

Now, the bra's are traveling back to the Midwest to a couple of shops for a showing and we are working on a calendar. Any monies we may receive for our calendars are going to be donated to a local charity.

Needless to say, I chose February as my knitted bra as I was born on Valentine's Day. She has been christened "Ms. February". It was so much fun doing this project and all of us involved really got a kick doing this.

Yes, some people may find this project silly and/or may be offended, but there are many more who have enjoyed it as much as we have. As I said in the little bio I had to provide, it has been great to see the smiles, laughs and little chuckles our group project has brought to many.

Additionally, for the knitters it was a great way for many of us to get to know each other a little better. How each of us interpreted each month's theme was really cool to see as well.

So I hope you as well get a little chuckle on the couple of pictures I have chosen to share with you as I can only display 4 pictures. On the day we did the group picture for the Auburn Journal, there were only about 10 of us who were able to make it for the photo shoot.

In case you are wondering what the kids thought of all of this. They thought it was neat, shook their heads and said "That's our Mom"!!!!!

Never know about Trees

Well you just never know when trees around your property are going to come down. We were out doing some stuff one day last week and imagine our surprise when we came home and one of the big Oak Trees was laying down over the back drive way. What we realized when we were checking out what was left of the Tree was the inside of the trunk was completely hollwed out. The good news it went away from the house and the back deck, the bad news we lost our shade on the back deck over the spa!!! So we had a Tree guy come out and take down the tree as we were very worried about the rest of the tree falling down and this part would of defintely come down on the back deck and/or the house. So we now have a very clear view of Christian Valley!!!!

Mud Baths You Say--Picasa Web Albums - Liz - Trip to Napa ...

About 4 weeks ago, I made a trip over to Napa to visit with an old friend who was out here in CA with her 2 daughters. Carolyn lives in Ohio and we had not seen each other for about 15 years. We decided to meet up and do a Mud Bath session up in Calistoga, visit a couple of wineries and just do the girlie thing.

We had a blast. As I and her had never tried the Mud Bath's before it was a new experience for all of us, including her 2 daughters. As we did not have a camera to take a picture of Carolyn and I, we did get one of her 2 daughters sitting in the mud with the cucumber slices on the eyes. We were totally exhausted and our system detoxed after the Mud Bath. Let me tell you, we had mud in all kinds of places which I will not elaborate on. Still had that sandy feeling even after taking 2 showers on Sunday. Afterwards, we made a trip over to Mondavi and had lunch over at Satuii's which is always a nice place for a picnic type lunch.

It was a great weekend and we all had so much fun. If you ever want to try something different, the Mud Bath's are well worth it.

Click on the link below to view the pictures

Picasa Web Albums - Liz - Trip to Napa ...

Smokey Skies

Well, you all have heard about the smokey skies we are having up here in the foothills. Yes, they are smokey. Took a couple of pictures from our back deck so you could see. It is like fog out there. Heading out to Napa for a girl weekend away and sure hoping there is no smoke down there.

The Road Home

Well, we started heading home on Monday. We made it 1/2 way and stayed at a great RV resort at the 7 Feathers Indian Casino.

Things we learned on the road, if you are in Oregon, get a Freddy Meyer card. It gives you 3 cents off the Gas and more if you use this card to get credit for your grocery purchases. Or use Costco and/or the Indian Reservations for cheaper priced gas.

It was great seeing everyone and seeing the sights.

We were going to stop in Lake Shasta on Tuesday, but because of the fires and the smoke we headed home.

It is hot and very smokey. Lucky for us the fires aren't putting us in any danger, but the smoke outside is very bad. It is like fog uphere big time. Just keeping my fingers crossed they get these fires under control so no one else loses their home and/or life.

Hope you enjoyed our travel log. Our next trip won't be until the fall. Howver, I am meeting a girlfriend who is coming out from Ohio in a couple of weeks up in Napa. Her and I are going to do the mud baths, springs and stuff. I'll take some pictures, but not sure you will see one of us in the mud bath.

Take care,

Liz and Ron

Pictures from our Trip

Pictures from our trip, okay it takes me a little while to figure this stuff out.

First, here are pictures from our Kayaking demo:

Kayaking on the Lake

Meeting with The Cheeses

Well, after doing the guy thing (which I really did enjoy), the 3 of us headed over to Tilamook Country on Sunday. Oh my god, it was like 7 Greyhound buses let off everyone when we got to the Tilamook cheese company. First, you stand in line to get into the place, then you stand in line to go thru the self guided tour, then you stand in line if you want to buy their ice cream (which we decided, we would buy it at the store if we wanted it), then you had to stand in line to sample 4 cheeses that you can buy at Costco.

So, we did the Liz version and I told the boys to follow me. We zipped thru over to the self guided tour and read a couple of bio's on who was responsible for getting Tilamook on the map and the dairy farmers (that was kind of interesting), saw the different quick video's of the cheese/butter process, then I zipped into the gift shop and bought my shot glass (I collect shot glasses instead of spoons when we visit places),Oh, we did get to watch a box of cheese on their conveyor belt as the production line was on vacation, yippeee!!!! we got the heck out of there and headed over to The Blue Heron. What a difference, no parking lot full of cars, vans and/or RV's. The place is a lot difference. They have more of a cheese shop but we got to sample cheeses you normally don't see in the grocery store and/or Costco. They also have all kinds of jellys, jams, etc. So we settled on some crackers, smoked brie and summer sausage. Then we walked over to their wine tasting area (I can't pass that up you all know). As Oregon is known for their Pinot's wanted to sample a couple of those. We bought a really nice Riesling (yes, I bought a Pinot but saving that for later), Jim bought us all special wine glasses and we went outside and had a great little lunch.

I have come to realize that every day around noonish, the wind comes up on the Coast and inland parts of Oregon. As Tilamook, is fairly close to the coast, you got it, the wind was up. Hey, it beats the fog and dampness.

We had a good time and then we headed down the coast a bit and on back to Portland.

We settled on Japanese food for dinner at a little place near Jim's house. It was wonderful, Jim and I feasted on Sushi and Sashimi. Ron had Pork Tonkatsu as he is not a real Sushi person. Tried Roe for the first time and it wasn't bad.

We had a great visit with Jim and have enjoyed our trip here in Oregon. After being gone for 3 1/2 weeks, we are getting ready to get home.

Jim got me a book on clamming in Oregon. We are talking about coming back up in the fall and having Jim trying to meet us on the coast so we can do some crabbing and clamming.

4th of July in Portland

Well, we defintley veg'd out on the 4th of July. Took it pretty lazy and then in the afternoon we drove to downtown Portland to a boat party with Jim and his friends. There is a Blues Festival that goes the entire 4th of July weekend. So we rode on one of the many small dingies that was ferrying people over to friends boats and listened to the various bands and singers. It was great, we got to hear Charlie Musslewhite, Canned Heat and some other groups. It was fun being on the boat, drinking some wine, eating and visiting with people. The Portland Marina area filled up pretty fast with boats coming in to not only hear the Blue's festival but to also see the fire works.

Jim's friend Dad was out from New York and we found out that he retired from Rochester Telephone Co., just can't get away from those phone people.

Tomorrow we are headed out to Tillamook to visit some of the Cheese factories. We are getting ready to head back home on Monday. Looking forward to seeing how my garden is doing, sleeping in my own bed and just being home.

Maritime Museum in Astoria

By now, we must sound like the Oregon Travel Center. Last Thursday, we traveled over to Astoria, OR so the boys could visit the Maritime Museum. It was pretty interesting and they had some neat items to look at. They cover the fishing, canning, coast guard and naval activities around Astoria and the Oregon coast from the early 1800's to current time.

They have a floating lighthouse the Coast guard had in service until 1977. This boat would be out at sea to help/warm ships/boats about weather and/or assist them. They were out at sea even during the worst storms, lots of guts!!!!!

Sharing a couple of pictures and we lucked out as it was a beautiful day. For my knitting buddies, check out the swifter, it is made out of whale bones. Afterwards, we drove down to one of the coastal towns and had a great dinner at Norma's in Seaside, Oregon.